Saturday, August 2, 2008

Have You Ever Watched People Eat?

Ha Ha!! I bet I got a hold of you with that title!! But I am serious. Have you ever watched people eat? It is fascinating. So multi-faceted, too!

First of all, if you really watch people eat, you can get a pretty good feel for their personality. Some are very particular...watch people at a salad bar if you don't believe me; what a hoot that is! For some, every shred of cheddar must be laid precisely on the salad. Some don't want anything touching. Some pile it as high as a possible, looking like they are afraid someone will eat the rest while they are conquering their mountain. Some are like me and have to pick only dark green lettuce...NO YELLOW! Hate the light yellow lettuce. Eating for me is not a means of survival...it is an event. My DMIL used to love to watch me eat because she said I enjoyed it so much!! (Bless her. She was a special lady.) I want everything perfect. See, you could probably find that out by just watching me at the salad bar!!! It is hilarious. Always pick the seat in the restaurant facing the salad bar. Cheapest entertainment around!!

How about how people chew? Some dig in...chomp away and get so into it. You can tell they might just be having the best time of their life!! Or the ones who take itsy bitsy bites that could possibly get lost in my big mouth never to be found again. Or the ones that chew for an eternity. Hello...do you ever leave anything for your stomach to do? You need not puree everything!!! Oh...don't forget the tidy ones that their lips never touch the utensil. I don't know...maybe they think they won't have to wash it if nothing touches it but food. I tell you...it is so much fun. You must give it a try. I bet you will start laughing thinking about me and that I was right. It is so funny sometimes you almost have to tell someone...lest you allow only yourself to relish (get it...relish...couldn't resist) in the funniest thing you probably saw that day!

But there is a double point I want you to see here. First of all, you can learn a lot about someone by watching what they eat and how they do it. But that's not really the point. The point is that something happens when people eat...especially when they eat together. If you haven't noticed, you need to. Eating and food is a powerful thing. When people gather and begin to eat...barriers begin to fall. All of a sudden, people are leaning on tables and talking with each other. If you are in a group you don't know...the ice is broken by a comment on the food...or how a waitress or waiter is doing their job...and before long...the conversation goes on and a relationship is started. By the time you leave, you bid farewells as if you had been friends for years. Do you see?

We walk in with all these barriers and walls around us...and because of breaking bread in the same area...there is a commonality. Soon something overtakes us and there is a crack in one of the walls and before long the entire wall is gone.

Gotta tell you this one...we were in a classy restaurant years ago...one of those that is broken down into little rooms. We were all sitting there with all our walls around us. Very into our own selves. At this particular restaurant they brought you salad makings on a large lazy susan and put it in the middle of the table and you made your own salad. To do this they brought these tongs to pick up your ingredients. There were only about five small tables in the room. As I said, we were all very into ourselves. The couple at the table in the middle of the room had made their salads and put the tongs securely back into the lettuce in the middle of the lazy susan...so they thought. They had just picked up their forks to politely begin eating a beautifully prepared salad when boom...those wonderfully placed tongs let loose...sprang up out of the bowl, spewing lettuce EVERYWHERE!!!. You would not believe how we all laughed!!! It broke down the walls and we had the best time laughing and talking through the rest of our meals!! This is what food can do!!

But as important as I feel food is in our lives...bringing us more than just nourishment for our bodies...the laughter is so important, too. Just as Mark Twain had said in the thought for the day...the minute we laugh...all our hardnesses yield and a sunny spirit takes its place. It is true. So true that the medical world is finding laughter plays a very important role in keeping good health and healing. I read a book about a man who finding out he had cancer decided to laugh it away. Got every funny movie he could find, read joke books, did everything he could do to laugh. He was cured. The medical profession is beginning to take a serious look at what laughter can do. Florida even offers classes in laughing. Part of the class is laughing...belly laughing..at nothing. They just start to laugh and end up laughing so hard. They have found it reduces stress and helps eliminate bullying.

So I guess this really isn't about eating. It's not about food. It is about laughing. You know...life is hard enough. There are so many horrible things that we have to face. So let's not take the rest of the things so seriously. Laugh. Laugh everyday about something...and laugh hard. See what a change it will bring in how you feel. It makes a difference to me. Hope it does for you, too.